The Region Takes a Starring Role in The County by Sarah Keenleyside
Interior designer and TV personality, Sarah Keenleyside’s new HGTV show The County launched April 3, 2026. A Prince Edward County transplant, Sarah is best known for her design work on the popular TV show, Backyard Builds as well as her national TV appearances. Her husband, Juno Award-winning music artist, Justin Rutledge, introduced Sarah to Prince Edward County when they met over 10 years ago. “I grew up in Ottawa and then was living in Toronto. I had never been here before, which I find so shocking because it’s smack dab right in the middle,” says Sarah of discovering the County, as it’s lovingly called by locals.
Written by Allison Nichol Longtin
Read time: 4 min
An interior designer first and TV personality second, Sarah cut her teeth on renovating Victorian houses in Toronto’s historic neighbourhoods. “Becoming an interior designer in Toronto, my bread and butter was Victorian homes…That was where I had curated my clientele. My sweet spot in design was restoring these Victorian homes, but then making them livable for modern families. It’s a real labour of love…It sort of became my calling card as a designer.” Her calling card came in handy with her move to the County in 2023, which is a treasure trove of historic homes in need of thoughtful and skilled restoration.
The couple committed to living the dream in the County. They sold their house in Toronto and found their dream home, a historic 1860s farmhouse ideally located on the edge of Picton, surrounded by open fields and idyllic countryside. The HGTV show has its roots in the full-scale renovation project that ensued.
Sarah started documenting the process of renovating the family home with the help of local social media marketing maven, Ali Kaufman of Storied Marketing, to capture the transformation. Sarah recalls that she “made a couple videos on social media to chronicle [the renovation],” and approached Ali to help tell the story. The County was born. It came about organically. “It’s a beautiful lesson in not chasing things. I feel very fortunate for how everything fell into place,” says Sarah.
Friends of Sarah’s from her TV days saw the reno happening in real-time on social media and reached out. They asked, “Are you truly living this life that seems so amazing in the most bucolic place that we all love? This is very aspirational. Can we maybe make a show about it?” Two months later, the show got the green light for production. “That’s really how the best things happen, right? Honestly, I couldn’t have made this happen if I tried,” says Sarah.
The show is inherently local: from the setting to the historical homes featured, and of course, the people. “Every project showcases at least one local maker who is making a custom piece for each space,” explains Sarah. When she met with TV execs to talk about the project, one of her non-negotiables was that she would work with a County-based team as well as local artists and artisans, who help make the area so vibrant, “This community is so special and so unique in that there are so many artists and craftspeople,” explains Sarah, “The reason that the show is so community-based is because that’s what this place is. It’s not [just] a physical place.”
The show features locals’ homes and their design projects. It also dives into their stories. “We were really looking for interesting stories. So whether you were born and raised here in the region or if you moved here, we wanted to feature different scales of renos, budgets, as well as different housing stock. The predominant style is Victorian homes, but we also do a super modern, brand new build, and we do a commercial job, the Taylor House, which is a brick 1830’s home that was picked up and moved on the grounds of the Claramount Club in Picton.”
“This is not like so many of those design TV shows from back in the day that had to be like ‘nowhere USA’ to get international appeal,” Sarah explains, “We’re in such a beautiful place, there’s national pride, and we don’t have to pretend that anymore. This particular show can only be made in the County because of all of the people in the trades involved. I needed the show to really showcase why it needed to be here. And that is, it is the community. It is the people.”
“The best way to sum it up is that this show has to be a love letter to the County. And the County is a character within the show.” With the County as a main character, Sarah’s the narrator, your local tour guide. When it came to finding a name for the show, suggestions were thrown around that included her name, which she quickly vetoed, “It wasn’t even a question. I was like, well, it’s called The County. It has nothing to do with me. I just happen to be showing the audience this magical place that we are fortunate enough to call home.”
What’s next for Sarah Keenleyside and The County? With all the buzz about the local production, folks are already wondering, will there be a second season? “Well, we don’t know yet,” Sarah admits, “We feel good about it. I’m so proud of it. It’s exactly the show I wanted to make. It’s docu-style, it’s not formulaic. We are showing a very real place…I hope that the community loves it and that they feel represented in the show. It’s impossible to truly capture what life is here. I hope that the community is proud to see what we’ve captured on national television.”
The County premiered on HGTV on Friday April 3. You can watch the 10-episode docu-style series weekly or stream on Citytv+. Learn more by following Sarah on Instagram.
The Bay of Quinte Film Office represents the communities of Belleville, Brighton, Hastings County, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Napanee, Prince Edward County, and Quinte West and is managed by the Bay of Quinte Regional Marketing Board.
